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Friday, January 23, 2009
Innovation Notation
When does transparency trump personal privacy?
By Chip Griffin
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MHT Editor Doug Banks on NECN: Decoding the Gen Y workforce
Flash Slideshow: Mass High Tech All-Stars Thought Leadership Roundtable
In a nation often obsessed by the notion of personal privacy, especially as it relates to health care, what are entrepreneurs to do when they face serious health questions? When the outcome of an executive’s medical situation may affect employees, investors, business partners, or customers, should the individual share information. If so, how much?
We have myriad laws that require absolute silence from medical professionals about even the slightest hangnail. Think about how often you have to sign to acknowledge receipt of some HIPAA statement or privacy policy at your doctor’s office or pharmacy.
Despite these safeguards, the rapid growth of blogs and other forms of social media often spur people to become much more transparent about many aspects of their lives. For some, especially younger Americans accustomed to sharing intimate personal details on services like Facebook, transparency now trumps privacy.
But talking about one’s personal health situation does not come easily to everyone. Take Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs, for instance. Just this week he took a leave of absence after having put out a statement earlier this month in an attempt to quell persistent rumors about the state of his health. Speculation had become so rampant in recent months that a number of reports had him near death — while one outlet even (briefly and erroneously) reported his death.
The reports of Jobs’ demise, like Mark Twain’s, may have been greatly exaggerated, but there was no denying that he did not look well in public appearances and seemed to have lost a considerable amount of weight over the past year.
The final straw that may have persuaded the notoriously private Jobs to be a little more forthcoming was when his decision not to keynote the annual MacWorld conference this month further intensified speculation among all interested parties. He attempted to put the controversy to rest by admitting that he had been losing weight and that it had been recently attributed to a “hormonal imbalance” being treated by doctors. He said it would be a number of months before results of the treatment would be clear, but that he was in good shape.
It may be more notable what did not appear in the statement. Many have speculated that this condition is related to the pancreatic cancer diagnosis he received several years ago. Jobs simply didn’t address that then, and didn’t mention it in his statement about his leave from Apple.
Of course, entrepreneurs who are not as widely known or publicly scrutinized must make similar decisions. Though their orbits may not be as large, the impact can be just as significant — if not more so.
This is an area with which I have recent personal experience. On Dec. 29, 2008, I underwent relatively minor heart surgery to correct an irregular heartbeat. It is a condition I have dealt with in various forms for more than a decade, and I have not been especially secretive about it. In fact, most of my friends and colleagues know about it to some extent. That’s simply my personality — I don’t find a need to be intensely secretive, though I don’t shout the details of my life from a mountain-top either.
But when it became clear to me that I would be having this medical procedure, I faced a decision with how public I would be about it. In the past, I have mentioned my heart condition in private settings where it seemed relevant, but have rarely spoken about it publicly.
Yet here I was scheduled to spend a few days in the hospital. I know that rumors and speculation develop anytime one hears that someone they know is in the hospital. So I decided to be direct and upfront. I posted about the procedure on my blog before I went in, then updated on the outcome when I was released.
It’s not something I was excited to do, but it is something that made sense to me. It is a decision that every entrepreneur may face at some point. There are no right and wrong answers for most. But in a society increasingly caught between the tension of transparency and privacy, it is one that becomes ever more challenging.
Chip Griffin is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who serves as the CEO of CustomScoop, a media intelligence company based in Concord, N.H. He can be reached at chipgriffin@gmail.com.
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